


Abysmal at Best

by Dark_Diamonds



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, M/M, klance, mermaid, mermaid lance
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-08-13
Updated: 2019-08-13
Packaged: 2020-08-20 11:08:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 17,311
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20226850
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dark_Diamonds/pseuds/Dark_Diamonds
Summary: Keith loves to swim, and he loves having some time to think to himself, so when he finds a hidden cove away from the eye of the public beach he thinks he's hit the jackpot. However, when a giant, venomous, possibly human-eating creature from folklore decides to make his little hideaway its new home he may be biting off more than he can chew. The mermaid is just happy to have new friends.





	1. The "Fish" In The Cave

Keith loved the water. He supposed living on the Florida coast that everyone did, you would have to in order to put up with the perpetual storming, hurricanes, and rebuilding. He and his brother had a nice little bungalow on the beach, their parents' old home, or rather his brother's parents, his former fosters. It was convenient to live just off the shore when Keith was constantly slipping out to enjoy the crystal waters that surrounded his home. However, he didn't take part in the surfing or sailing that most of his peers and neighbor's did, he preferred to swim in solace, in a little cove he had found completely by accident. His friends called it his fortress of solitude, and they weren't wrong. As he walked his eyes stayed on the endless, clear blue sky, a perfect day to visit his spot. He'd first stumbled upon the hideaway during a storm, thinking it would be a nice shelter. Being on the far side of the beach and on the other side of a hilltop, the area was nearly abandoned. As it turned out the cave flooded to near full during storms and high tide, Keith was lucky to make it out before the harshest of the storm's waves trapped him in. Revisiting it on a clear day had been a brilliant idea, as he was able to explore the entirety of the structure and appreciate it in all its glory. He wandered here at least once a week to swim in the secretive pools of bright blue ocean water.   
The mouth of the cave was half on shore when the tide was low and the sea calm, a thin stream running along the right wall for a good fifteen feet, and through a large hole in a stone blockade. Keith preferred to climb over the wall, as it was only a few feet tall, instead of through the muddy hole in the bottom corner. On the other side the stream emptied into a large pool, a natural skylight shining straight down to render it crystal clear and reveal just how deep it was. This was the farthest Keith went during the storm. There was only a small bank running along the left side, a few feet wide, more a ledge than anything, ending just before another, larger stone wall. This one went nearly to the roof of the cave and had a few small openings up top. This blockage Keith had no choice but to go under, prompting him to wrap his belongings in a thousand layers of plastic before putting them in his bag to come here. Keith tied back his dark hair, pushing back his overgrown fringe and hoping it stayed put before securing his goggles to his face. Diving down, he went straight for where he knew the opening was, a large hole nearly centered in the rock, the tunnel was more than large enough for a person, it was approximately five or six feet long and three or four feet wide with a slight decline, upon exiting another ten or so feet were between the tunnel and the bottom of this last pool. Keith swam to the top and inhaled deeply before paddling straight back to the opposite wall where an embankment protruded. It was a long time to hold his breath, but worth it. The edge of the stone bank in the back of the cave declined far enough into the water to be a decent little ramp to climb up when dry. When the water level rose though it was a nice slide to dip back in, as long as he didn't plan on going back up again. This part of the cave was by far the biggest, two of his homes could likely fit within the space, not even including the expanse under the water. Up on the stony stage Keith set his bag beside the tiny alcove in which he kept his other belongings, secured in an air-tight plastic box for when the tide came up. A few large, heavy rocks inside kept it from being away by the water. The "floor" went on for a few dozen feet before the ceiling tapered into it, closing off the whole structure like a giant cone.  
Keith reveled in having what was essentially his own, personal Olympic-sized pool. Five small openings interrupted the blackness of the stone roof, lighting up the room below and the water reflected it every which way, casting it in a pale blue glow. He quickly readjusted his goggles and pulled a small mesh bag from his box before jumping back in, eager to explore whatever new treasures the ocean had swept in. His little hideaway was also an effective net for sea junk, all sorts of tiny creatures and interesting little shells and rocks funneled down into the cave, ready to be plucked out. Sometimes he brought down a waterproof disposable camera to photograph the wildlife, that was always fun to share. He first combed through the dozen crawl spaces and dead end tunnels in the rock walls, having to come up for air between. He was always wary of the crawl spaces, they were just perfect for crustaceans and camouflaged creatures to hide in, so he had to be careful feeling around in the sand and gravel. One time a crab had snapped at him after he unearthed it, just missing his finger. A few of these spaces were large enough for Keith to fit inside, some were just little indentations in the stone, maybe big enough for a small dog. There were also plenty of overhangs and firm coral structures that small fish would hide around. Then he raked through the sand and underwater flora, also having to take breaks. While the bottom was mostly sand, it was littered with patches of kelp and seaweed, some sponges as well. He usually found most of the nicer shells tangled in the fronds. The entire enclosure was a perfect little ecosystem to itself.   
The pressure of being so far beneath the surface gave Keith a monstrous headache if he stayed down too long, and the amount of paddling he had to do made him downright sore. Coming back up a final time, Keith went to the ledge to complete the rest of his cave ritual: cleaning his findings and drying off to read in the comfortable silence. This time he'd found a handful of brightly colored stones, two pristine, unscathed shells, and a few pieces of frosted sea glass. He polished them with the corner of his towel and put them in a plastic baggy he had filled with bubble wrap, his friends would love the new additions to their collections.   
Keith hardly ever kept his findings, he felt having the source to himself was a gift in itself, his few loved ones could keep the souvenirs. Pidge loved to keep the photographs and shells, always going into great detail about what animal they had once been part of and meticulously organizing them whenever another one was added. Keith thought Pidge was such a little nerd, ever since her brother and Keith's had introduced the two, but he'd be damned if they weren't kindred, cynical spirits. The brightly colored rocks were meant for Hunk, the big guy never ceased to be fascinated by how nature could create things so vivid; from paper white, to toxic greens and rosy pinks, to abyssal black. He and Hunk had met in school, his friend was a Hawaiian native that had just recently moved in before starting high school. Being the voice of reason, it was usually him that told Keith and Pidge when to slow down and stop being impulsive idiots. Keith's brother would have been fascinated by anything that he brought him, but Keith always made sure to save him the best of the trinkets he found. Shiro loved the ocean just as much as Keith, but saw it much less than he would like to. He was once a marine, but was discharged and retired upon losing his arm in service. His prosthetic, while top of the line, could only handle so much sea water at a time before it threatened to rust; Shiro had to clean it diligently and thoroughly after every trip to the shore.   
Keith began to lose track of time as he read, nestled in his favorite spot, a little dip in the rock two feet from the waters edge. He only realized how much time had passed when the words got hard to read in the dimming light and the sound of soft waves started rustling beside him. That noise always meant the tide was beginning to rise, and it was time to go. It took a few minutes for the teen to pack everything away safely and place the box back in its cubby, then double check everything in his backpack was tightly wrapped. The level had definitely crept up in the time he'd been preoccupied, the floor now slick and the ledge half submerged. The passage back through was quick, Keith hating the familiar feeling of his feet sinking in what was now ankle-deep mud in the second chamber of the cave, the sandy strip now submerged. Exiting the cave now consisted of wading through the waist high water and doggy paddling through shallows, around the outer wall of the cove to the shoreline. It was a perfect Friday afternoon, just the remedy for a long week working the counter at the beach rental shop. All that was left was a much needed shower, a hot meal, and finally to head off to sleep.  
Shiro was lounged across the couch, his fiancé leaning into his side, hair a mess and his eyes fighting to stay open as they watched TV. Keith thought Adam was perfect for his sibling, he was active and headstrong enough to level with his military lifestyle, but mellow enough to soothe him. His brother was devastated when they separated before his deployment, put they'd thankfully (and tearfully) patched things up when he returned, missing a limb and desperately needing a hug and some rest. Keith caught Shiro's eyes and gave him a nod and smile, lifting the strap of his bag to silently communicate that he had treasures to share. Shiro smiled back and returned his attention to the TV set.   
Keith took his time in the shower, enjoying the hot stream of water as it loosened the copious knots in his aching back. Once he finished showering Keith collected the sea glass and a marbled grey, purple, and black stone from his bag of findings for his brother. The three discussed Keith's little trip over a dinner of quick, boxed macaroni. The teen loved these simple nights, easy, laid back, quiet, the way he liked it.

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Two blue blurs ripped through the water, a blue grey tailing a fluorescent azure as a thin stream of red escaped it. Truth be told the azure knew leaving the safety of the trench was unwise, but he couldn't help being adventurous. Or as his pod had called him, "stupid." It was just his luck that after days of travel the minute he reached blue waters a shark was on him. Now here he was, clutching a bleeding right shoulder and swimming as fast as he could without use of his arms, nearly blind from exposure to light he had never before seen. All the toothy, vicious creatures he encountered living in an abyss, and it's a common mako shark that takes a bite out of him. That's what he gets for not paying attention, but glancing at it, he knows it could be worse. His shoulder was cut up, it was an obvious bite, but the shark luckily hadn't gotten the chance to close its jaws on him. The thing had been in hot pursuit for miles, chasing a meal fit for a king, a young merman. The shallows came into view, dark rock and white sand just barely distinguishable from open blue ocean, the azure tail whipping twice as hard, hoping to escape its pursuer. That's when he saw it, a dark spot, an opening in the rocky reef, a little tunnel big enough for him to hide in. He released his still bleeding arm and made a break for the tight little space, zipping through, smacking his tail fin on the jagged wall and not bothering to check if he was still being followed before he spotted and went through a second, deeper tunnel. The cave went deeper still, but not deep enough, the deep sea dweller observed his surroundings quickly and dove for what looked to be another tunnel, smacking into a wall very shortly after. He settled for curling up in the tight hiding space instead, hiding in the dark from anything that may have followed him through.   
When nothing moved or changed after a while the merman slowly emerged, taking in what little they could see with more interest than before. He scanned the area, it was considerably darker than the open water he'd been in before, much easier on his unaccustomed eyes. His own bioluminescent patterns were still torture to look at after his sensory overload, but in his panicked state they were near impossible to fade out. They would flare up whenever his kind were experiencing strong or rapidly shifting emotions and when their adrenaline got flowing; it didn't help that his eyes would glow along with the patterns on his skin, making the light of the surface even more intense to his sensitive receptors. It was evolutionary, helped his kind see in the dark and attract prey that were drawn to the pretty lights that decorated their skin, eyes, claws, and even teeth. With open water being so bright already though, it seemed it just made him a target for large creatures closer to the surface. The mako was lucky to have caught him off guard, if he had been prepared and uninjured the shark would have been his first meal out of the abyss. The bright blue mermaid continued to slowly claw his way across the bottom of the cavern he found himself in. It was a fair size to hide in, he liked the openness, perfect for swimming, but the tiny alcoves were perfect to sleep in, secure feeling. Coming across a patch of seaweed he plucked a frond, wrapping it tightly around the injured shoulder to stop the bleeding. The cuts should heal up soon, but he could very well bleed out overnight if he just left it be. His shoulder tended, the boy continued to feel his way across the enclosure, finding it in fact was a space he could very well stay a while in, even coming across a few fish and crustaceans he was quick to impale with his claws and devour. After his second crab he decided he would stay, wait out his recovery, and return home to tell his pod of his venture. Not that they'd care all that much, they all thought he just liked the sound of his own voice. After he came of age and had to leave his family, the group he ended up with was the best he could find. Beggars can't be choosers, still he shared his adventure stories with them.  
This place was fairly well hidden, it supplied necessities, and was dark enough for comfort, it was a good vacation spot for the moment. Once this was decided his anxiety dropped and his bright patterns faded with it, going back to the bright blue, but nonglowing dormant state his skin's markings usually held. He observed the bright blue against a tan background, had it always been that color? He never realized his skin was so warm a tone, living as far down as he did everyone seemed to lack any pigment excluding their bioluminescence, just dark silhouettes that lit up different colors. Grabbing a fistful of hair, he looked at that too and was surprised to see again more of that warm color. His mind raced a million miles a minute as he grabbed for different things on himself, wanting to see how they looked up here in the shallows. The necklaces he had strung together of pretty colored shells, rocks, and small bones were even more beautiful, breathtaking even. The stones he chose were ones that had looked nice in his own personal lighting, and in the neutral surface lighting it turned out they were several of the same colors, bright blues and silvers littering his neck in string upon string. The mermaid looked up, toward the sliver of gray that was his newfound light source. He wanted to see it. He didn't stop to think about it, whipping his tail and breaching the surface, his eyes and skin again glowing as the new sensation of leaving the water shocked his system. He averted his eyes, everything suddenly too bright, but stayed above the water, stubbornly wanting to get used to the new experience. His gills, located on the sides of his ribcage, stayed below water, only his shoulder exposed to the open air, but he felt something moving in his chest that was very unfamiliar, only serving to brighten his glow. The feeling of his gills holding themselves shut worsened his fear as the feeling in his chest continued, an unused set of organs now coming into play. This wasn't filtration, this was that thing "humans" did: breathing. He'd heard tales of humans, old stories told by old men of weird made up creatures that lived beyond the water on tails they cut in half. But surely if he was breathing so easily, there must be something else that breathes, perhaps the humans weren't just folklore.   
The young merman bit the bullet and looked up to the light, knowing he wouldn't calm down anytime soon thinking about humans and breathing and whatnot. He got an eyeful of an overwhelming silver dot before he dove back to the bottom, his gills reopening in a seamless transition back to filtration. The view had been nice, but overloading all the same. The mermaid tucked himself back into his little crawlspace, curling up to sleep. Lance had given himself enough anxiety for one day. 

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Keith awoke the next morning to the smell of fresh coffee. He entered the kitchen to see Adam pouring himself a mug of it, drowning the black gold in sugar and milk. He slid in beside his soon-to-be brother and poured himself a cup as well, drinking it straight black.   
"Morning bro," Keith lightly bumped him with his elbow. Adam scoffed, taking a drink before dealing with his nonsense so early.  
"I don't understand why you say that every morning," he replied.  
"Because you'll be my brother soon?"   
"But do you say 'Morning bro' to Shiro every morning?" Adam took a seat at their small dining table.  
"May-"  
"No, no you don't," he tried not to laugh. The two were quiet for a bit while they drank and waited for the caffeine to kick in.  
"So, what are your plans for today?" Adam chirped, ever the cheerful one in the house.  
"Eh, thought I'd go back down to the cove," Keith shrugged, sipping again from his mug.  
"The way you describe it, it sounds great. Do you always go down there alone though?" Keith recognized his concerned big brother voice.  
"I've offered to bring Hunk and Pidge down, it's just not their thing. I think I'm the only isolated, dark, underground caves type," he joked back. This seemed to satisfy Adam for the moment though.  
"Well have fun, Shiro and I will be out most of the afternoon, just call us if you need anything, and bring me back a shell too," he said before returning to nursing on his coffee. Shiro emerged soon after Adam finished his cup, kissing him on the cheek and patting his brother on the back as he too went for the coffee maker. Keith couldn't help himself.  
"Morning bro," he directed a smug smile to Adam, putting his mug up to hide it as Shiro turned to look at him funny for a moment. He shook it off and filled his mug to the brim, also drinking it black.  
"Morning Kiddo," he said back, voice hoarse. Keith frowned and Adam laughed softly.   
"Alright, bye," Keith waved to the two and took his cup to his room to get ready to leave.  
To Keith's delight the sky was just as blissfully clear as the day before, and if the forecast was correct the next week would keep up this trend. He'd called up Pidge before leaving the house and the two had made plans to meet up later so Keith could pass on his treasures and help his neighbor clean and reorganize her collection. He genuinely had invited both of his friends to see his secret little getaway, and neither had been very enthusiastic. Pidge liked creatures, but not so much swimming, and Hunk was reluctant for the sheer fact that he was scared something dangerous could get swept into the caverns and he didn't want to be in an enclosed space with it.   
When he reached the mouth of the cave Keith noticed something was a little off at the first stone wall, but he couldn't quite pinpoint what it was. It wasn't until he was planting his feet in the sand on the other side that he realized what it was, a crack in the stone through the muddy hole. He scrutinized it from the other side, wondering just how strong the current must have been to crack the stone. The question was soon shrugged off and goggles affixed to make passage to the other side. He passed through the tunnel and popped up on the other side, promptly abandoning his bag on the stone floor. Today he wanted to just float around, think a bit and just meditate in the calmness of his hideaway. He tended to float mindlessly around the pool so long that the entire day could pass and he wouldn't realize it until the yellow light of day began to wear the pink veil of dusk. He left his goggles up on the shore as well, floating on his back across the surface and letting his mind wander. Above him the white hot sun could be seen peaking through the holes in the ceiling, lighting up the room beautifully while the black stone kept it shaded and cool enough to be a nice escape from the Florida summer.  
Below him, the young merman was petrified. First he had awoken in the morning to blinding light all around him, the brightness of a shallow water night was dwarfed by the excruciating pain of trying to see in the waters of day. He'd stayed tucked away most of the morning, squinting to try and adjust, closing his eyes again, and repeating the process every few minutes. It was a change that took Lance quite long to get used to enough to dim his glow. But just when he thought he could deal with it, just when he thought he could still convince himself everything was okay, IT showed up. It must be one of those human things, that's all he could think of when he saw the silhouette of a merman with two small tails enter his newfound sanctuary. It's eyes were bright red, shiny and protruding from its head like a fish. Lance didn't know what to do, he was almost blind, scared, and cornered in an unfamiliar place by a beast of legends. Backing as far as possible into the closest hole didn't help, what was before secure now felt entrapping. He squinted at the ground outside his hiding spot, keeping an eye on the shadow drifting lazily across the sand, just a slightly darker blob from this distance. He couldn't look up at the actual creature, the light above them too intense. So he hid, tail coiled around himself, lit up like a lantern despite how he scolded himself that in this moment camouflage was of dire need.  
Keith felt... off. Something was different, just like at the wall it was something he couldn't place. Call it instinct, but he for some reason didn't feel right as he was floating around, it didn't hold that feeling of comfortable isolation anymore. Keith quickly flipped and swam to the ledge, hopping out to observe the crystal water below and grab his things to hopefully leave. He stared down into the pale blue depths, as the ripples he caused settled his eye caught some sort of light in the far right corner, a bright glow emitted from where he knew one of the cubby holes was located. Suddenly Hunk's fear of something dangerous washing in didn't seem so unfounded. Still, Keith was the impulsive one, the brash one, the stupid one, and he dove down to see what it was, bag in arm in case he needed a quick getaway. He hit the bottom, realizing too late he left his goggles up top, but not wanting to risk the thing moving if he went up for them. The water stung his eyes and blurred his vision, out of habit he blinked to try clearing the blurriness, to no avail. But he didn't need goggles to see how the giant blue mass in the wall pocket became electrified under his gaze, first jumping around in the hole, then deciding it'd rather not stay put. Two thin brown appendages shot out of the alcove, followed by a torso and what seemed to be a never ending length of blue. A mass of brown hair waved around the figure as it waited stock still, and Keith couldn't deny what this looked like. He didn't have time to explain away his thought as the figure came toward him faster than he could even blink. Suddenly it was too close, face to face, and Keith could see its soulless eyes peeking through its free floating hair. The irises were unnaturally large and multicolored, a thick ring of sliver toward the center flaring into an electric blue and then a thin ring of smoky black, glowing as if they had LED lights behind them. Even the whites of its eyes also had a faint blue glow, though nowhere as bright as the iris, but the pupils were almost nonexistent, hardly noticeable pock marks in the creature's bright eyes.   
He scanned the creature, spotting a hand of absolutely life-threatening claws, at least two inches long each, and the length of the tail could potentially trap or crush Keith like a python. He booked it to the exit, the creature still floating in its spot momentarily before turning to follow. Keith felt the hand wrap around his ankle, could feel the areas where fingers spread and webbing touched his skin, could feel claws pressing in from just how tightly he was being held, could feel his heart pounding faster than it ever had. He kicked wildly and looked back at the creature, it was just barely in the tunnel, hand bracing the entrance, trying to pull Keith back. He kicked faster, harder, finally catching the thing in the shoulder. It didn't quite let go, in fact it held tighter, but it yanked its arm back from the pain of the kick as if it forgot it was holding anything and cut the hell out of Keith's leg. He swam as fast as he could to the sand bank on the other side and climbed the wall, falling into the sand at the entrance and attempting several times to get up and run. All he could manage was to limp out, his leg bleeding profusely and quickly going numb. Unable to get very far he collapsed once he crested the hill, almost to the parking lot, alone on this desolate part of the beach he fished his phone from his bag to call an ambulance. He called 911, then Shiro, then Pidge and Hunk, and waited for someone to reach him.   
Hunk was the first on scene, and he was horrified with the scene before him, Keith was bleeding endlessly, trying to stop it by tying a towel under his knee while the cuts down his calf turned purple. Hunk held pressure on the leg and tried to calm Keith down as he yelled and rambled on about something in the water. The ambulance didn't show up long after, allowing his friend on due only to the fact that he was in shock and started yelling and going into full on panic when they tried to tell Hunk to go. Hunk was on the phone with Shiro while the EMTs stabilized Keith and tried talking him down, they thankfully arrived to the ER quickly.   
The dark haired teen had to be subdued while his wounds were flushed and stitched up, the five gashes rotated around his leg cleanly like razor cuts. Shiro and Adam entered his room with wide, terrified eyes as they saw Keith's leg wrapped and propped high upon a pile of pillows. Adam was talking a mile a minute, asking the nurse more questions than they had answers for.  
"Keith, what happened?" Shiro held tight on his younger brother's hand as if letting go would cause more injury.  
"Shiro, I-I don't... It was down in the cave... and I-I can't even describe it. You wouldn't believe it," he held tighter and stared hard into his eyes. Shiro's eyes were deep, dark, and normal, so very normal. Keith jolted at remembering that piercing gaze, the way it looked into his soul and paralyzed him.   
"It's okay, it's okay buddy, you're all good," Hunk said from his other side, hand firmly holding onto his shoulder. Keith looked at his well maintained nails, all cut and rounded nicely, then looked at his own leg where he could see abnormally purple veins spread above the bandaged area. He flexed his toes, sighing with relief when they actually moved. A nurse adjusted his IV stand to make room for his crowding friends.  
"What's in the bag?" He asked her, she paused and read off the label, paraphrasing.   
"It's an antivenin. Whatever got ahold of you possessed some serious toxins, it's a good thing we got to you so soon," she said, giving a reassuring pat on his shoulder before leaving.   
"What was down there Keith?" Hunk asked, hand rubbing comfortingly across his friends shoulder.  
"Hunk... I think I saw... Man I... I think I saw a mermaid," Keith didn't look at anyone, knowing how crazy it sounded, but there was nothing else that could have been, no matter how much he thought it over and tried to be reasonable, he always came to the same conclusion. Adam looked as though he would tear up.  
"Keith, it must just be the shock, maybe it-"   
"I KNOW it sounds crazy, okay? I'm not losing my mind or anything, I'm just really freaked out because the damn thing tried to take my leg off. Little Mermaid my ass, it had to be over ten feet long and it wasn't any pretty princess, I'll tell you that," he cut through, acid in his words.  
"I think Adam's right, maybe it was a barracuda or-or a shark? I told you something would get swept into that cave," Hunk had every right to say 'I told you so,' but now, in the hospital, was certainly not the time.  
"Would you listen to me?! I know what I saw, and it wasn't some toothy fucking fish!"  
"Keith, language, calm down," Shiro began to take on his stern dad-like voice, warning his brother to stand down. Keith of course refused.  
"No! You're all acting like I'm crazy, but I know what I saw, okay?! I looked it in the EYE. It grabbed me with its HAND. It was huge, and it had hair, and skin, and-and what shark could cut me like this?! These are perfect fucking lines, nothing's torn or bitten, I'm CUT," he wildly motioned toward his leg.  
"And I-"  
"I'm sorry to interrupt," a doctor came in, a clipboard under his arms and a plastic wrapped set of syringes in his hand.  
"No, please come in," Adam wiped at his eye, genuinely terrified for his brother-in-law.  
The doctor read over the papers on his board between checking beneath the bandages and observing the IV bag.   
"Do you know what it is you cut yourself on?" He asked. The room was quiet before Keith sighed, not liking the phrasing one bit. The nurse had been kind enough to listen to his panic and imply he was attacked, the doctor seemed to think otherwise.  
"I was cave diving, and there was a... I'm not quite sure what it was, a big fish or shark or something. Either it bit me or I cut myself on the tunnels, I don't know, I didn't even notice until I was out of the water. The doctor nodded and continued looking through his papers.  
"I only ask because we tested a sample from your leg and found some very odd results," he said.  
"Odd how?" Shiro asked.  
"Well there were toxins in the wound, but we couldn't narrow it down to one, that could be from pollution sometime between the injury and arrival here, or there could have been a mixture of things present at the time," the doctor explained.  
"Couldn't narrow it down? Then how are you treating it?" Adam's voice was hard, cold, his worry translating to harsh defensiveness.   
"It had similarities to other venoms, urchin, blowfish, stingray, lion fish, even octopus. All very different creatures, but treating for each of these individually definitely seems to be doing the trick," he said as he loaded the syringe and began to search for the vein of Keith's thigh, it wasn't difficult seeing as it was still dark purple. It stung awfully and Keith clenched his fists as it felt cold flowing through him.  
Pidge arrived an hour later, no one had spoken of the cave in that time, not wanting to touch on the "mermaid" dwelling there. Pidge was quick to berate her friend for getting himself hurt.  
"See this is why I don't leave shallow water, you were down there 20 minutes and something tried to kill you," they said, eyeing the thick wraps on his leg.   
"If it were under normal circumstances I could have gotten out," Keith rolled his eyes.  
"Not this again," Shiro scolded.  
"Not what again?" Pidge asked.  
"I saw something down there and everyone thinks I'm crazy."  
"A mermaid, Keith. You went all out and said a mermaid tried to eat you," Hunk corrected.   
"A mermaid?!" Pidge was absolutely bursting, holding her sides laughing.  
"Pidge. Keith's seriously hurt, this isn't the time to laugh," Shiro warned.   
"But he's not dead, so it's fine. And he said he saw Ariel, so it's warranted," Pidge tried to stop laughing still.  
"NOT Ariel, dammit Pidge. A ten foot monster with claws like a harpie and eyes like a fucking demon. I'm telling you all, it looked me in the eye and grabbed me when I tried to get away. It WASNT. A. FISH." His temper was boiling over all over again.  
"We'll talk about this later, alright? When you're not in a hospital bed," Shiro put an end to the conversation, silencing Pidge with a look.   
Still, no matter what anyone said, Keith knew what he saw.

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Lance stared down at his hand, at the radiant azure of his glowing nails, still in disbelief. It wasn't his intention to harm the creature, as much as it terrified him. In fact he almost had a heart attack when it challenged him, staring him down the way it had, and he couldn't help but notice how it's eyes were no longer red. Out of fear he had accepted; among his kind seceding would have made him a servant or toy for his opponent, and who was to say it didn't mean death for the humans? So he had approached as he should, colors proudly displayed, claws at the ready, awaiting the challengers first move, as was tradition. Up close it's eyes were small and dark, and it's skin one flat color, but in general it looked like any other sea dweller. Surprisingly the human retreated almost immediately, confusing the young merman. Lance's mistake was attempting to follow, to bring back the creature in order to present the gesture of benevolence. This human was obviously master of the cavern he now resided in, their scent covered it, a scent the young mermaid had assumed just came with the shallows. It was in his best interest to show the host he meant no harm, but all at once his intentions were wasted as the human kicked his injured shoulder, popping open a few of the healing teeth marks. It was gone the next second, leaving a bleeding young mer to retreat back to his tiny cove. Still the scent was strong, so much stronger than before, and it didn't take long to realize what had happened upon observing the hand that previously clutched one of those odd human tails. Lance didn't know how deep he cut it, or how fast the humans healed, but he knew it would die should it not find help soon. The abyss dwellers had some of the most deadly venom in all the ocean, it secreted from their claws and the spines of their tails and arms, a wonderful defensive mechanism.   
He looked to the surface, the human had disappeared from the water briefly, was there something up there? Bracing himself for what would no doubt be even more torturous rays, he swam slowly to the surface, eyes almost shut as he looked skyward. Emerging from the water he again felt that unfamiliar movement from his chest as his gills closed, he kept his head down turned as he looked around, spotting a large dark shape to the far side of the room. He swam toward it cautiously, hands out stretched to help guide or defend him if need be. When the pads of his fingers felt the unmistakeable roughness of stone Lance was set at ease. The dark rocky surface extended past his line of vision, which wasn't very far all things considered. He felt around and slid across the ledge of it realizing he could crawl up if he so desired, which he very much did not. To the far left he jumped as his hand found something, something shiny and red. Picking it up and examining it he quickly dropped the thing and watched it sink, it was the human's red eyes. Could humans just switch eyes whenever they pleased? Just take them right out of their heads? How barbaric. Curiosity had Lance diving down to retrieve the eyes and further inspect them. They were light, and not solid as he expected eyes to be, they were more like cups on a strap. He began to wonder if they even were eyes, perhaps they were some accessory? Lance lifted them and attempted to look through the lenses, flinching and pulling them away as they cast everything around him in a sheen of pale red. Why would humans wear these? Did they not already see in color? Or maybe the red was to mute the other colors? He looked again through the lenses and observed the area surrounding him, it was certainly much less vivid, where he could before see blurry colored silhouettes he now just saw muted blobs. The object seemed altogether undesirable, but he supposed humans really needed them if they were willing to wear them.  
Lance put the object in his little cove, deciding the best way to show he meant no ill will was to present them to their owner... If it lived. While gift giving was no small matter among his species, it wouldn't count if he was only returning an item, of this he was certain. Lance caught sight of how his colors faded at this thought, and an idea hit him. Just as the surface light was too much for his eyes to handle, perhaps his own glow had been too much for human eyes to handle! Without its red eyes dulling the colors, looking upon a mermaids luminescence must have been unbearable. Perhaps the challenge hadn't really been a challenge, perhaps the human only wanted to intimidate a little, to mark its territory and stake its claim. That made sense, right? That it was just scared? Lance liked the thought that the human wasn't hostile.   
He really hoped it survived.

\---------------------------------

A week passed. A week of Keith having to be holed up in his room, a week of avoiding the water, and a week of assuring his loved ones that he was not losing his mind and everything still happened the way he said it did. After day three Shiro started ignoring his ravings, not responding to his brother until he switched the subject. Hunk still tried to be supportive, saying it must have been a trick of the light or maybe some seaweed that wrapped around the "barracuda" and looked like hair. Pidge was the only one that would listen, both because she wanted to laugh at him and because the way he described the creature sounded very interesting. She drew out a few diagrams of the creature he described (from what he could see) and took to mocking him with them, saying he'd win a Nobel prize for being the very first to document a mermaid.   
"I mean, you've got it in a tank and everything," she would laugh.   
Keith told his friends the minute he was cleared to go back into the water he was taking them to the cave to show them himself. He went back and forth on this idea almost daily. On one hand he wanted to prove that he'd really seen a mermaid, but on the other he had just barely escaped it, God forbid it actually kill him next time or hurt one of his friends.   
While Keith still had his stitches in he would wander around the cave, even climbing up on top of it, ignoring his sore calf, to peer through the skylights. From the outside the cave really wasn't very large, a majority of it being underground, but it was still quite a climb, and looking down into it he could hardly see anything, it all just looked so shadowed from above. He was lucky he hadn't been cut very deep, a dog could have dealt him the same amount of damage, now it was all just down to making sure his scars were actually closed up before he went back into the water. Of course Keith wasn't the patient type. Looking at the scabbed lines on his leg he figured, "good enough," and called up Hunk and Pidge to arrange a little visit to his now very dangerous Fortress of Solitude.   
"You can't be serious," Hunk said, very drained by the whole mermaid thing.  
"I didn't want to go down there before, why would I go now after you nearly lost your leg?" Pidge questioned.  
"To prove me wrong?" He justified.  
"Keith, this is legitimately a bad idea and very, VERY dangerous. This is life threatening, I don't want any part of it," Hunk was firm, and very right, but Keith knew what he had to show them was something huge, something he shouldn't keep to himself.   
"That's why I'll go first, I'll be the look out and the dummy, I won't let anything happen to you guys," he assured.  
"Dummy is right," Pidge cut in.  
"Katie, I'm being for real," all were quiet for a minute; Pidge was hardly ever called by her birth name, her mom did when she was in trouble, and her friends did when the situation was serious, but besides that it wasn't used.   
"Keith I know you feel strongly about this, but are you listening to yourself? You're talking about a fairytale, and you're expecting us to just follow you underground to the spot where you were actually, severely injured to prove a point?"  
"I am listening to myself, and I know I sound batshit insane, that's why I want to bring you guys down there. Because I know I saw what I saw and I need you guys to believe me, it's fucked up feeling like everyone thinks I've lost my mind," Keith grit out. The line was silent, Keith too worked up to risk saying anything more, and his friends stewing over the choice set before them.  
"Well... Say I did agree to go down there... And I'm not saying I am... What should I bring?" Hunk dragged out, his voice absolutely exasperated.   
"You're the best," Keith said.  
"That's not an answer," Pidge added.  
"He asked what we should bring."  
Two days later the group was outside the cave, their phones secured in plastic bags with a waterproof camera and a switchblade. Keith wished the day had been clearer, the sky was cloudy and he knew that would affect the lighting in the pools. Thankfully they weren't storm clouds though. Pidge laughed at Hunk's wetsuit, he never usually wore it and she claimed wetsuits looked like ugly feetie pajamas.   
"No way I'm exposing any skin around whatever is down there," he defended.   
Keith was in his usual swim trunks and Pidge in her one piece and trunks combo, it certainly made Hunk look a little ridiculous beside them.  
"Okay plan is, we all go through to the last pool, we get a picture, and I'll distract it while you two get out," Keith breezed through.  
"Got it?"   
"Lot of holes in that plan, but yeah, got it," Pidge gave the thumbs up, highly doubting anything still resided in the cave.  
Coming to the first wall Keith climbed over easily, Hunk fumbled over shortly after him, and Pidge decided to crawl through the muddy hole. As the trio stood on the sand banks looking down into the water Keith's eyes darted around, keeping a lookout for a shining blue tail or mop of brown hair. When nothing turned up he prepared to dive in, taking deep breaths and hoping the thing wasn't waiting for him at the tunnel.  
"I'll call over to you guys from the other side if it's safe," he said, jumping in before he could hear Hunk screech in a panic,   
"IF?!"   
Keith proceeded through the passage with trepidation, and upon emerging from the other side he scanned the floor thoroughly, but saw nothing but the blurry shapes of plants and dark voids of the hideaways. He looked up around the open water, but still saw nothing. He rose to the top and observed the water below for a minute before yelling out to the wall.  
"It's clear!" Shortly after he heard a splash and Pidge emerged through the hole in the wall. She didn't bother looking around before swimming to the top. Keith observed the floor around him, his goggles had apparently been swept out to sea during one of the many high tides he'd been away for.  
"Clear, Hunk!" Keith called again. There was a considerably long pause.  
"You're good! You can come over any day now!" Pidge tacked on. Another pause before a loud splash. Hunk took slightly longer to come through, likely looking around every few feet for the "barracuda." Sure enough once he emerged from the wall his face was continuously whipping around to see the surroundings.  
"Well, we're all here. But where's your mermaid?" Pidge asked, getting the camera out of Keith's bag and tossing it around nonchalantly.  
"I... I don't know," he confessed.  
"It should be here, I mean, it was. Maybe it left in the time I was gone..." He thought aloud, kicking himself for not making sure it was here before he dragged his friends down.   
Little did he know the mermaid had not left, it was very much present, and very much panicking. It presided in the largest cove, the same one it had stowed away in its first night, just across from the entrance and beneath a large overhang. When Lance had seen the human again he was thrilled it had lived, he had rehearsed in his head how he would approach the owner of the cave, and had begun psyching himself up to do so. The human hadn't noticed him in the shadows being that he was not currently lit up, and had gone up to the surface. Lance watched him go, eyes still squinting a bit. He was so happy that he was adjusting to surface light, everything was so beautiful in the daylight when it wasn't just a blob. Of course he couldn't see very far yet, but progress was progress. He grabbed the red eyes from the far corner of the dead end tunnel and was about to make himself seen when another creature entering stopped him in his tracks. This one was smaller, it's hair lighter, and it moved quickly without care. Lance shoved himself back as far as he could in the dead end, tail folded behind him. Soon another human came through, this one larger and considerably more cautious as it observed every inch surrounding it, scanning over Lance in his hiding spot. He thanked every little grain of sand and groove in the cave that he had not been seen. By the time all three humans had surfaced the merman was completely aglow, wondering if the master of the cave had brought these other humans to kill Lance for what happened last time. Perhaps the human had not been hostile then, but now was different. Lance still held tightly to the red eyes, unable to move or let them go, he didn't know what to do. He'd found out that when the sky was bright like this the entrance became dry, and in the time it would take him to try crawling onto dry land the humans would have him by the tail. Could he even leave water? He hadn't tried, it was unnatural. He buried his face in the sand, debating what he should do, if he could escape, or if he would die.  
"This really is a nice little place though Keith, magical or not," Hunk looked up, observing the structure as he partially unzipped his wetsuit and pulled the hood down.   
"It's not magical, just a regular cave until the freaking mermaid just showed up one day," Keith corrected.  
"It's really not bad, I can see why you like it," Pidge said, not commenting on the fairytale aspect of the conversation.   
"Okay whatever, I'm going to go look around in the water. I'll see if it's hiding, you guys keep watch. Be ready to snap a picture," he leapt in, determined to find it and refusing to believe it had just disappeared. The water was of course blurry and dark compared to the last time he'd gone combing through it, he needed to get a new pair of goggles immediately, he couldn't deal with the odd feeling of having his eyes open underwater. He approached the cubby the mermaid had been hiding in last time, slowly paddling towards it, not spotting the blue light, but still waiting for it to spring out again. The closer he got, he saw there was nothing in the hole, blue, tan, or otherwise. He looked around and recalled the size of each pocket in his head. There were only about four or five a person could fit in, and the thing he'd seen was even bigger than a person. It's torso had been normal human size, maybe a little lanky, but that tail was monstrous. He hoped Pidge and Hunk could capture the whole thing in frame. He had to resurface and take a breath, diving right back down when his eyes caught Pidge's skeptical ones, Hunk holding the camera just barely in position to capture anything in the water. He needed to find it soon, before they decided his crazy story wasn't worth standing around an empty cave.  
Lance watched the dark haired human dive back and search another alcove, mulling over his options. The other two humans had stayed on the shore while this one searched, obviously for the merman, were they actually here to harm him? Lance took a chance and inched forward, getting a better view of the being as it moved on to another space and then went up again to breathe. He easily connected the dots, the human was checking all the big spaces, and soon it would find Lance, the question was if he should wait or show himself first. Soon the cave owner was descending again, and he knew he had to be quick, yet he couldn't bring himself to move any further. Waiting it was. He didn't have to wait long, as the two tiny tails came into view, swishing around, then he could see clawless hands on the rocky overhang as the human pulled itself into view. The two made eye contact and the human became very still, just staring down the merman with wide eyes. Lance was unsure what to do, was this a challenge? He wasn't even sure of it last time, would the human retreat again? Was this a rematch to restore honor? Lance had no time to think rationally, a million thoughts zipping through his head, so he just acted, bolting toward the human and just missing it as it pulled itself over the stone canopy. He kept his arms down and kept swimming, not stopping for a second as he observed the human. He dare not lift his hands, afraid to hurt it again, but he feared what may happen should he cease moving around the enclosure. He circled around him, looking him in the eye every chance he could, his eyes were still that deep dark color, but now that Lance was better adjusted he could tell it wasn't just dark like a shadow or the rock walls he was surrounded by. It was a pretty dark, like the marbled stones he would find in the sand here. Did human eyes just stay dark?   
Keith was petrified as the mermaid circled him, nothing good ever came of a predator revolving around something. Keith kept his eye on his pursuer and made a break for the shore, confused when instead of following him it retreated back to the hole it had come from. He came up gasping, Hunk and Pidge quick to reach out and yank him out of the water, allowing him to crawl his way back and as far from the ledge as he could on weak arms. Hunk continued to look down into the depths below, hands shaking slightly.   
"I told you! I fucking told both of you!" Keith gasped out, not quite having enough air in his lungs yet.  
"Keith all I saw was a giant fish, a really, really, REALLY big fish, but that's it," Pidge said.  
"What?! Are you kidding me, I was looking at it the entire time UP CLOSE, it's a goddamn mermaid!"  
"I think it's a sturgeon, or maybe an oarfish? It moves weird and it's really long, but it's sleek," Hunk kept looking down at the water. Pidge ran up and pulled her large friend away from the waters edge.  
"We don't know if that thing can jump dude! But it's fast, way too fast for us to just swim past it. So now... We're STUCK here, KEITH." Pidge pointed an accusatory glare his way.  
"I told you there were holes in your plan!" She raised her voice.  
"And you still agreed to it! I just wanted to show you guys I wasn't crazy!"  
"Well good job, cause now we're stranded and STILL think you're nuts! It's not a mermaid! It's a big fish!"  
The two kept yelling back and forth, Pidge walking towards the back of the cave to get in Keith's face.  
"You went through something traumatic, your mind played tricks on you to make it less scary. THAT'S. IT. We're trying to be supportive, but it's hard when now we're being blocked off in an underground cave!"   
"LESS scary?! It was terrifying, I'd be less scarred by it if it was just a damn fish!"  
"Uh, g-guys?" Hunk asked quietly, still looking at the water from a few feet away.  
"You need to face facts, it's just a fairytale," Pidge got quieter but her words were just as seething.  
"Guys," Hunk tried again, shuffling further back from the edge.  
"I. KNOW. WHAT. I. SAW." Keith bit back.  
Hunk ran between the two, smacking them both hard on the back and pointing towards the pool.  
"GUYS!" He yelled, getting them to finally look to what had caught his attention.  
A wet mess of brown hair peered at the group with a piercing blue eye from the ledge, clawed hands holding on to the stone. A few feet behind the head a broad tail fin lazily swayed back and forth, the tip peeking above the water. Pidge couldn't muster the words to question what she was seeing, mouth agape and eyes threatening to pop out of her skull.  
"I know what I saw," Keith repeated, still staring at the creature, the mermaid


	2. Eyes And What They Mean

It's visible eye was still as eerie as ever, pupil slightly bigger compared to the last time and it's hair covering most of its face. Keith wondered if behind that hair it had even more horrendous features. He couldn't think long about it as Pidge began to walk towards it, wanting a better view of the tail that Keith had said was absolutely huge.  
"Pidge. Pidge! Don't go near it!" Keith warned. She didn't reply.  
"Pidge!" Hunk called, lurching forward to grab her arm.  
"I-I just want to see it better. I'm not getting too close," she said quietly.   
"You just got done telling me we don't know if this thing can jump. Stay back Pidge," Hunk said, hand tightening on her arm.  
"Pidge," an unfamiliar voice said, a rattle and underlying whistle echoing behind it. The group froze, all eyes slowly locking on the mermaid, watching as the lights that danced across its nails and eyes faded, leaving pale blue in its place. Keith focused on how those tiny pupils began to dilate as the glowing faded.  
"Pidge," it repeated.  
"Y-yeah, that's... That's my name," she pointed to herself, hand shaking. The creature looked to Hunk, making him jump as those eyes settled on him, and repeated,  
"Pidge." Hunk shook his head and pointed to Katie. The mermaid focused on her again and blinked a few times before backing away from the ledge and floating lazily across the water, eyes jumping between the three humans before it put its face back in to leisurely swim just below the surface.  
Keith rose from his spot on the cave floor and came to stand by his friends, finally taking in the mermaid now that it moved so slowly. The tail was definitely long and moved more like a snake than the knee-bending movements from movies, it was a beautiful cerulean color in the light. The tail fin was easily three feet wide, fading into a transparent membrane towards the end. Both of the arms had spiny fins from wrist to elbow that matched the end of the tail and were mirrored on the hips, there was a one foot long dorsal fin as well in the center of its back. Blue scales littered the area around the fins protruding from its skin, trailing up its back and ending between the shoulder blades. It's tan skin bore two thick soft blue lines that trailed its long arms and sides. In several places blue dots decorated its skin, a line of them just above and below his belly button, a few curving around his shoulders, and some dotted on his ribs and neck, perfectly symmetrical. The mermaid appeared to like accessorizing, as it wore necklaces upon necklaces and strings of shells and knotted foliage around its waist, nearly covering its chest from the sheer amount of things it had strung around itself. Keith could now tell this was a male, at least by human standards. It came toward the ledge again, righting itself and looking back to the group, it's hair, while still a wet mess of tendrils, fell to the side, exposing a very human face and delicate fins where ears would normally be. Soft blue lines swept up his neck and chin, marking his cheeks and forming trails that drew attention up toward the eyes. He was a pretty merman, Keith would give him that, his face was very angular with high cheekbones and a slim nose, still, Keith could not overlook those eyes. As if it read his mind, the merman locked eyes with his and lifted its clawed hands, fingers spread and wrists bent so far back his palms faced forward. He just held that position, turning his face down and tail disappearing beneath the water.  
"What's he doing?" Hunk asked.  
"I have no idea. Last time he just grabbed my leg and called it a day," Keith whispered back.  
"It's probably some weird mermaid custom," Pidge said, edging forward to take in as much of the scene as she could.   
"Do we high five him or something?" Hunk asked.  
"Not unless you want your face ripped off," Keith answered.  
"Hey, uh... Mer-dude?" Keith yelled over to the creature. It didn't stir, holding its position firmly.  
"I'm not quite sure what you're doing," he added. Still it remained in place.  
"Obviously doesn't know English, why would it?" Keith muttered to himself.  
"What do you think, Pidge?" he asked his small friend.  
"Me?"  
"Yeah, you said it's probably a custom and you study marine animals and all that junk, just give me your best guess," he patted her shoulder and resumed watching the mermaids odd display.  
"Um... Well... Based on body language... and habits within the animal kingdom... I think it's saying it doesn't mean any harm?"   
"And your second guess would be?"  
"That's my only guess," she looked to her dark haired friend.  
"Pidge. He tried to take my leg," Keith dead panned.  
"Then maybe this is an apology? Maybe it was an accident? I mean human skin is pretty soft," Hunk pitched in his two cents.  
"Why do you guys think it's trying to be nice?" Keith more accused than asked.  
"Well he's looking away for one, tons of animals will look away or close their eyes to display trust or-or submission," Hunk cut in before Pidge could.  
"Yeah that's a biggie," was her only contribution. Keith still wasn't convinced.  
Lance's arms began to hurt from holding his pose so long, he'd never had to hold it this long in a gesture of benevolence, but he would hold it as long as it took for the human to give him his acceptance. The three humans were bickering in their weird language, he could hear them going back and forth, none of them getting any closer to show him their acceptance. He wondered how long it would be before his tail grew too tired of trying to keep him upright, he wasn't meant to stay like this, but he had to stay there, in his most vulnerable position.   
Pidge took the initiative to walk closer to the waters edge, Hunk having dropped her arm during their back and forth with Keith.  
"Pidge!" Hunk yelled, missing as he grabbed for her arm again. Pidge stopped just in front of the mermaid, she could touch it if she wanted to, and truthfully, she really wanted to. She observed the translucent webbing that stopped at the second knuckle of its long fingers, and the intimidatingly long talons on each finger that apparently delivered a nasty little venom to their victims. She felt a hand on her back and looked to see Keith on her right, Hunk just behind him.   
"Back up," he said. She complied, backing away a few steps as Keith knelt in his spot, trying to get a look at the ocean dweller's face. It looked strained, it's hands shaking just a bit and it's waist shaking quickly with the motion of its tail. The creature was definitely struggling. If this was some apology ritual, what was Keith supposed to do to make it stop? Thinking back the creature really had only grabbed him, with claws like those it must have been inevitable to cut him. He grabbed onto Pidge and Hunk all the time and they were his friends, maybe the merman hadn't meant to hurt him at all.   
"High five him," Hunk stage whispered to his friend. Sighing, Keith thought 'what the hell' and lightly smacked the upturned palms. The mermaid jolted on contact, his hands beginning to close, but going right back to their previous position. Keith thought on it and decided to do something really stupid.  
"If anything happens, call 911, then call Shiro," before his friends could object he placed his hands in the others and kept them there, trying not to shudder as they hesitantly closed around his. The mermaid slowly pulled his hands in towards its chest, placing them over the necklaces, about where its collar bones were, and making a soft trilling and whistling noise. It held their hands there and slowly lifted its face to make eye contact. Keith could see its pupils contract as it looked up at him, only holding his gaze for a moment before bowing its head again. He had no clue what it said, but it seemed much happier as it let him go and began to swim again. He looked back to see his friends with their phones poised and ready, wide eyes fixed on the scene that had played out much better than anticipated.   
"Is he-is he happy now? Like are we all good?" Hunk asked, phone still tightly in hand.  
"I really don't know," Keith looked down into the water at the rambunctious movements of the mermaid. Pidge came up next to him, ushering Hunk to join them.   
The three watched the creature slowly start to light up and dive deeper into the pool, going back to its hole. It came up soon after, bursting from the water and splashing the group. The markings in his skin were glowing brightly, something clearly visible now that he no longer hid behind the rocky ledge. It reached toward the dark haired boy in the trio, causing him to jump back. It seemed to realize it's mistake and calmed its wild gesturing, motioning with an open hand towards Keith's then it's own face while it said something in its whistling language. Hunk noticed it sounded much like a dolphin in some instances, but more like a growl in others. It did this a few times before becoming frustrated with the confusion, trilling and motioning for Keith to come closer. He did so reluctantly, again kneeling and getting close to the thing. It's other hand shot up from the water and was held openly in front the human, his red goggles cradled in its palm.  
"Hey, wow, you found them," he took the specs, only further delighting the new cave occupant as it smiled, exposing a mouthful of bright white teeth with at least four sets of fang-like teeth beginning from where a normal humans canines were and disappearing back into its mouth. The thing could very well bite through his arm. He tried to hide his shiver, but those large eyes never missed anything it seemed, as it allowed its smile to shrink back, showing only the less threatening front teeth. Keith felt the slightest bit guilty, the merman couldn't help what his teeth looked like, but he knew all the same that if he'd seen those teeth before he never would have brought his friends down here, the poisonous claws were bad enough. The water lapped up, hitting the feet of the human trio, and Keith looked up to the skylight, realizing it was getting very late.  
"Time for us to go, tide just keeps rising from here," he told his friends.   
The mermaid glanced around at the group confused as they collected their things and the larger of the three readjusted his wetsuit hood. When the one with the dark hair stood and turned away from him he couldn't help the panic that nipped at him. Last time the human left because he did something wrong and it hadn't come back for a long time. He didn't know how long it was, but he knew he'd never been alone so long in his life. How long would they be gone this time?  
"You'll come back, won't you?" He asked of the group, and recoiled at the plain fear on their faces. He had no way of knowing just how terrifying the clicking and growling of his language was to them, but it became apparent as they gravitated toward each other, almost reflexively. Lance knew this movement, these humans were a pod, and they were grouping to defend themselves. Lance became even more panicked, had he not just shown them that he was not an enemy? Did they not understand this? What could he do to make the humans understand? He caught the brightening glow on his hands and pulled them into the water fast enough to splash himself in the face, now was not the time to show his distress. He racked his brain for something else he could do to show he meant well, his head feeling as though it would explode. There was too much light, his eyes were torturing themselves by lighting up and everywhere he looked light reflected.   
"I... We were getting along," he defended to the pod before him desperately. They stayed away, staring as though he were threatening them. They couldn't understand him, and he feared anything more in his own language would just further the divide. However, there was one thing he did know in the human language.  
"Pidge," he pleaded to the small one, beginning to put his hand out in another gesture of trust, but noticing the ledge felt different beneath him. He pulled his hand back and observed the ledge he was now propped on, the water had risen considerably, just as it did every day before the surface lights began to dim. Lance looked back to the humans, then down to the cave's exit. The humans needed to breathe, and when the sky became dark the island was fully submerged, he knew they needed to leave. Still, he feared whether or not they would ever come back, he didn't like being lonely. When he looked back to the group the small one, Pidge, was taking a few tentative steps toward him, becoming only more cautious as it stepped on wet stone.  
"We need to go back home," she spoke slowly. Lance knew not what the human said to him, but knew they were trying to say something important by how their features were set. It got closer to him, and Lance leaned in to show his undivided attention.  
Pidge tried to keep her hand from shaking as she pointed at the merman, her nerves unwinding slightly at the goofy cross-eyed look it got trying to see her finger in its face. She then pointed around the slowly rising water.  
"Home," she hoped a quick English lesson would be enough to get them out of there. She repeated this three times before gesturing to her friends, then pointing beyond the rock wall.  
"Back home," she paused and watched the gears turning in the sea creature's head.  
"Pidge, he doesn't understand, just come back so we can figure this out," Hunk called softly.  
"He's sitting right in our path, I'm sure if I can just convince him to-" Pidge jolted and nearly shrieked at the feeling of long fingers and webbing on her arm. She looked back at the merman, terrified she was about to be the next in the ER. Keith was beside her in seconds, Hunk in tow. Keith latched onto the merman's arm, his grip much tighter than the one on Katie.  
"Let go!" He yelled at it, ready to yank the damn thing out of the water if need be. Still it held on, head down.  
"Home," it whimpered. Keith became less fierce in his hold, but stayed ready to attack the thing.  
"Pidge, home," he gave a slight tug on her arm, Keith resuming his bone-crushing hold. It flinched, and made eye contact with the dark haired teen.  
"Back home," it said, it's other arm dipping below the waters to motion to the hole in the wall. Keith held on a moment longer before hesitantly releasing the tan arm. Pidge kept her gaze on the hand on her wrist, it wasn't holding particularly tight, in fact its grip was rather lax, like it had no strength in its fingers. The claws were terrifying, but she was comforted by the way it seemed to splay its fingers out, as if intentionally avoiding touching her with them. She was jarred from her musings as it gave her a gentle shake, then she was looking into bright blue eyes.  
"Home, Pidge, back home," it tugged her gently toward the water, and she said a silent prayer before she obliged. They were underwater for a few seconds before the merman let her go, then it swam to the exit. Hunk followed almost immediately, his worry for his defenseless, small friend outweighing his own fear. He didn't see the merman, it was already through the hole, but he was on Pidge's tail as she kicked her way through the cave wall. Keith was close behind and the two emerged on the other side to see Pidge climbing atop the mostly submerged wall, the merman floating without a care in the smaller space, looking anywhere but the mouth of the cave. Hunk took off to get out of the water, Keith was now the hesitant one as the tanned boy locked eyes with him. He barely got out of the water when he felt a familiar hand on his leg. He whipped around so fast it flinched, pulling its hand away. The two stared each other down a moment before the merman reached forward, ever so slow, and tapped the tip of its claw on Keith's chest.  
"Back," he pointed now to the wall behind him.  
"Home," he gestured outside, then swung his arm again to the rock wall.  
"Back," he finished, and nodded as if he'd made his point before submerging himself again, escaping to the larger pool on the other side.   
The group waded out of the cove and once on the beach they all became hysteric.  
"It's real!" Hunk screamed.  
"Oh my god oh my god oh my god," Pidge was practically hyperventilating.  
"I fucking told you! Both of you! Suck it assholes!" Keith was ecstatic.   
"Dude, are you going to go back?" Hunk asked.  
"What?" Keith stood straight, he honestly hadn't thought about going back to his hiding spot with the killer mermaid now residing in it.  
"Yeah, I mean it was asking you to wasn't it?" His large friend elaborated.  
"Was it?"   
"Well, duh. What else could he have meant?" Pidge set her hand on her hip.  
"I say we all come back tomorrow, I'm going to start a journal on him," she said, oozing anticipation.   
"Are we gonna tell anyone about this?" Hunk asked, pulling his hood down again.  
"No way! If we do the FBI or some scientist douche would drag him out by his tail and cut him open!" Pidge rebuked.  
"Don't you think he's dangerous? Shouldn't we tell somebody?" Keith shot back.  
"I think he's just misunderstood, I mean he's definitely scary, but I don't think he means to be," she defended, thinking back to how the sea creature had held onto her.  
"So... We just have a secret mermaid now?" their Samoan friend confirmed.  
"We take this to our graves," the smallest of the group insisted, glaring at Keith.  
"Ugh, fine! I'll just tell Shiro I finally came to my senses," he threw his arms up.   
The three walked back up to the parking lot, conversation dying down once they reached the public eye.

\---------------------

Shiro and Adam were all too happy to hear Keith begrudgingly say that there was no mermaid, that he had gone into shock and conjured the whole thing up.  
"It really was just a big fish. Probably was a lost barracuda like Hunk said," he had to try hard not to roll his eyes at 'barracuda.' He wanted so badly to scream 'I told you so,' and rub his brothers nose in it, but he'd promised his friends not to. He excused himself to bed soon after dinner and packed his bag for the next morning, tightly wrapping his old high school English notebook in plastic bags, hoping they'd figure out a more effective way to communicate with the whistling creature than pointing and hand holding. Hunk was already sending messages in the group chat that had been named 'Unda Da C' by Pidge.   
'Can fish-people have chocolate?' Hunk had sent.  
'Are you trying to feed it??? Don't zoos tell you not to feed animals???' Keith sent back.  
'That's because then they'll come up expecting food all the time. But if I give him food maybe we'll be cool? I feed you guys all the time and I'm sure that's why we're still friends.'   
'What are you planning on bringing?' Pidge emerged into the chat.  
'My triple chocolate cookies'  
'DO IT' Pidge commanded.   
'You bringing anything special Keith?'  
'Not really, just the usual stuff I bring down, books, camera, phone, etc'  
'I'm going to bring a field journal of course, and this book I found at the library about cryptids. You know for how many movies they're in where they're really pretty and gentle, old folk tale accounts of mermaids are really horrifying'  
'And he isn't?' Keith retorted.  
'Leave my mer-son alone' Hunk joked.  
'Yeah, that was very mer-rude' Pidge joined in.  
'Lets just hope we don't get mer-dered'   
'Oh that's dark' Hunk came back with.  
'Good one though, I'll see you guys bright and early outside the cave,' Pidge said before going silent in the chat.  
Keith was the last to arrive at the mouth of the cave, his friends impatiently bouncing on their feet with full backpacks.  
"Come on, come on, we're late," Pidge shoved her friends around the rocky structure.  
"Late? It's not like he was expecting us by a certain time," Keith looked back at the pushy little imp.  
"Well we don't know how mermaid time works yet, so we should have been up with the sun and in here by the time the sky was blue, it's almost eleven, so we're late,"  
"Up with the sun?" Hunk asked, lifting himself up onto the wall.  
"Nature's alarm clock," Pidge crawled through the hole, and immediately jumped into the water.  
"Dammit Pidge, slow it down," Keith situated his goggles and went in after her. He soon emerged on the other side, Pidge already up on the shore. Hunk still took his time coming through, worrisome as ever.  
"So maybe he's nocturnal," Pidge said, scanning through the water below, not seeing anything out of the ordinary.   
"I mean yesterday you went looking for him, so perhaps you woke him up?" Hunk added, peering over the edge with her as Keith situated his belongings.   
"I guess that means I'm going looking again?" He dead panned. His friends silence was confirmation enough. He released a heavy sigh, readjusted his goggles, and took a running start before diving into the pool, hitting the bottom quickly. Peering around he scrutinized the two holes he'd seen the merman in before, making out the edge of the tail fin tucked in the same cove from yesterday. Swimming toward it he saw that the creature lay curled up in the dark spot, likely sleeping as Pidge had proposed. He was close enough to touch it, and debated whether or not that was a good idea. It seemed comfortable enough with touch, but it was also very primal, there was no telling what was considered a bad touch for the merman. Keith launched himself back up to the surface, perching himself on the rocky ledge before his friends.  
"Where is safe to touch a marine animal to get its attention?" He asked them.   
"Um... I'd say it's sides or back... Like when you go to swim with dolphins or rays," Hunk said.  
"Since he's a mammal I think you'd be safe with his back or head. Going for his underbelly or hands could be seen as threatening though," Pidge contributed. Keith nodded and went back down, deciding tapping him on the back was his safest bet. Seeing the merman in the hole again, however, he realized the creature was tucked back in a way that he'd have to put himself in the cramped space with it to touch anything but it's tail.   
Inching forward along the top of the rocky cove, Keith reevaluated his encounters with the sea dweller, thinking over just how he could get its attention and not offend it in some odd way. It seemed to grab limbs purely to get attention, allowing someone to touch its chest was apparently a display of trust, and now Keith wondered just how it would react to contact on its head or tail. He now hovered above the thing, watching the fin on its back rise and fall with his breathing, spreading ever so slightly when he inhaled. The mermaid slept on its folded arms, tail curled around itself for either comfort or protection, he was just so very human in some ways, as he was otherworldly in others. Keith could start to feel himself getting light headed and his chest tighten as he ran out of air, so he bit the bullet and reached down to gently tap the other cave occupant on its dotted shoulder.   
Lance had been dreaming of colors newly discovered on his little vacation, of the tiny colorful fish and bright shells of this little cove. He had stayed awake late into the night, weaving new necklaces of his favorite stones, a little souvenir for when he returned to his trenches. Whenever that may be. In truth he could have gone home days ago, he was fully healed, but he was having too much fun in the shallows, discovering too many new things, and he wanted to be able to see in the clear daylight, he needed to see just how beautiful his little enclosure was in full. His dreaming was interrupted by the feeling of something on his shoulder, he shook it off as being a brave fish swimming through. He couldn't shake off when it came back, shaking him and becoming frantic in its movements. Lance batted his eyes open and was quick enough to catch human tails exiting his little sleeping space. Once they were out of sight Lance sped from his hideaway, seeing the dark haired human and reaching the surface even before he did. He was greeted with the bright faces of the other two humans, the Pidge and the big scaredy one. The dark eyed human resurfaced next to Lance, holding himself on the ledge and gasping for air. The two glance at each other briefly before the human climbed back on land, keeping his legs dangling over the edge. Lance needed a name for the other two humans, not just Pidge.  
"Pidge," he pointed to the small one, talon nearly touching her. She nodded enthusiastically while she dug into her bag.  
"Pidge," he continued to point at her, then turned to point at the larger human.   
"H-hunk," it said.  
"Huh-hunk?" Lance tried.  
"Hunk," the big human pointed to itself, nodding.  
"Pidge. Hunk," Lance recounted, seeing that Pidge was now drawing in a big, folding... something, and Hunk was opening up his own bag. Lance turned finally to the dark eyed human beside him, the owner of the cove. He drew close, the bendy joint of one of those human tails tapping against his chest as the water rippled around them. The human looked uncomfortable, as though he would leave the water altogether if Lance stayed so close, he wondered if humans were as unsettled by touch as some sea folk were. Lance liked contact, he couldn't help it. Many others of his kind held strong aversion to physical contact, but Lance was raised lovingly in a large family, thusly grew to be an affectionate creature. His pod back in the trench just barely tolerated his over-friendly gestures due to him being one of the best hunters and fighters for miles. Yes, he was loving, but that didn't mean he couldn't be absolutely vicious when duty called. However, now was not the time for vicious, not with the humans. Now was the time for him to shine, to be loving and affectionate, to be sociable, to be Lance.   
He got closer, the hinges of the human tails now firmly in his chest as he propped himself up on the lap before him.  
"Pidge," he pointed to the small one.  
"Hunk," he pointed to the worrisome one.  
"Ah?" he pointed to Keith, his face indicating he was asking a question, but didn't know how to phrase it.  
"Keith," the dark haired human said, his back stiff, angling himself away from the merman in his lap. Pidge and Hunk watched the scene playing out, too interested in the creature to laugh at their friend's predicament.   
"Keeeef," it said, a trilling echoing behind the long 'e' it was learning to pronounce. The poor thing looked bewildered by the odd sensation of the word in his throat. With the other names everything was blunt, mouthed syllables on a breath, but this name involved so much work in the back of his throat, and there was something to be done with tongue and teeth for some of the sounds, he could see it in how the human said it.   
"Keith," the human repeated. Lance pulled himself up, hands on either side of the human as he lifted himself to be eye-to-eye and watch the name tumble again from the human's mouth. He stared at its lips in heavy concentration, waiting for it to talk again. He leaned closer as he watched it start again.  
"KeiTH'" speaking slowly, the human emphasized and dragged the last part, allowing Lance to see just how everything moved in order to say this name. How did the tip of the tongue make that noise on teeth? He thought it made a completely different noise. He lowered himself back into the human's lap, staring up at him as best he could without blinding himself or inciting a challenge.  
"Keith," he repeated. The human was still tense, but nodded an affirmation. Lance trilled happily, so proud of himself for making such progress. He buried his face in the fabric on the human tails, splashing his tail about as he silently congratulated himself. If he was glowing a little, he didn't notice.  
Keith wasn't sure what to do, a lapful of what he could only describe as a 'giddy' merman was not what he expected coming down here today. Hell if someone told him a week ago, or even two days ago that this is where he'd be Keith would have thought they were batshit insane. His friends didn't laugh, that was the upside, but they didn't help either. He turned to his friends, Pidge taking thorough notes and Hunk on standby with cookies.  
"Uh, guys? Little help here?" He whispered, trying not to disturb the currently docile thing in his lap. Pidge shuffled a bit closer, attention still on their notes, Hunk sauntered over, opening the baggie he held. The delicious smell of chocolate hit Keith's nose and he held his hand out for one of the treats. The smell had caught the mermaid's attention as well it seemed, for his head shot up and he eyed the bag in Hunk's hand, then the single cookie in Keith's. However, he recoiled oddly when Hunk offered him one, it wasn't out of fear or caution, but the merman certainly seemed confused, almost laughably so. He began to light up in an odd pattern, the lights on his skin almost blinking the way they faded in and out. Hunk pulled the cookie back and scanned the odd expression as the mermaid seemed to do the same, before he took a bite of the proffered treat himself. The merman seemed to relax at realizing it was food, he turned to watch Keith also bite into his, and watched as Pidge came to retrieve one as well before going back to her notes. The blinking lights halted.  
Lance recognized this custom, it was simply food sharing, as any pod would do, not the gift giving he so feared it was. But then, why would he be offered a share? To give food was a gesture in itself, it was the giver saying they wished you to live and be strong, thus why food was only shared amongst a pod. Was this his acceptance? Lance detached himself from Keith and came closer to Hunk, who stayed on land. He briefly looked him in the eye, long enough to see his eyes were also dark, but more resembled the food he held than sea floor stones like Keith's.  
"You're kinda right about those eyes, eerie," Hunk said. Lance didn't understand the human words, but he wanted to. Their language was all blunt, graceless noises compared to the one he knew, but still it was something new.   
"Hunk," Lance got his attention and pointed to the baggie of cookies, his face again twisted as if asking a question.  
"Ah," he hoped he was understood. Thankfully, Hunk smiled at him, all big, white, blunt teeth. What else did humans eat with those? Surely there wasn't much they could bite through with them.  
"Coo-kie" the larger of the humans said, retrieving one and holding it just out of reach. Lance smiled too, shrinking back a little at how his smile startled this pod's food giver. He needed to learn to stop doing that, first Keith, now Hunk, the humans apparently didn't like his teeth. He stopped wading so fervently, allowing himself to sink down until the water covered his offending mouth. Hunk seemed displeased at this though, saying more odd human things with that trademark worry etched into his features.   
"Cookie," he said again, holding it closer to the water, Lance could grab it if he liked.  
"Coo... kie," the merman repeated, just allowing his mouth to resurface. Pidge was peeking from around Hunk, and Lance could see that their eyes were mostly a golden color, little dots of greens and browns smearing them in some places, they looked like the insides of shallow water shells. The group all just crouched by the waters edge, staring, and suddenly Lance felt shy with three sets of eyes on him, all so different. The dark-eyed Keith looked at him like a threat to his pod, the tiny Pidge inspected him the same way he did the ocean floor stones, and then Hunk... Lance felt his chest become tight at the look he was being given by Hunk, he knew that look. He'd seen that same look illuminated bright white on his mother's face, all the worry and care of a provider reflected now in this human.   
"Is he crying?" Keith asked as he sat straighter, startled by the merman's current behavior.  
"I think he's scared, maybe we were crowding him too much?" Pidge said, concerned for the boy that floated still in the water, not looking away from them.  
"He's lighting up again, do you think it's an emotional thing?" Hunk added, still holding out the treat. He didn't have time to move or even think as the merman lunged at him, holding onto his arm desperately, but not tightly. The mermaid dunked its face beneath the surface quickly to clear away the iridescent blue tears and wiped away whatever clung to his face, still holding tightly to the human's arm. He fixed his face into a neutral expression and continued to cling onto the welcoming presence.  
"Poor guy, being alone out here. What if he's separated from his family? Or- what if he's the last of his kind?!" Hunk directed at Keith, who couldn't tear his eyes away from the rapidly dispersing blue trails in the water.  
"We gotta do something, he can't stay on my arm forever, it's getting heavy," Hunk relented.  
Those things made sense, but Keith couldn't quite voice his agreement, he opted instead to lean closer and shake the merman's shoulder for the third time that day. He couldn't tell while underwater, but his skin felt purely human, not slimy or scaly as he had feared. The creature turned its watery, bright eyes to him, taking in the hard expression.  
Lance felt like a wreck, he probably looked it too, despite him having been so set on making a good impression. The Keith was staring him down again, what was with these humans and staring? Was that not a challenge to them? Or were they trying to make him feel inferior? Keith held out a hand, palm up, and just waited. Lance was reluctant to take it, but when he did he was directed away from the kind aura of Hunk to drift back into the space of the one human that was always on-edge. He feared repercussions, that he would be evicted from this beautiful enclosure for showing such weakness. What had he been thinking? If he'd pulled this shit back in the trench he would not only be exiled from his pod, but he'd be painted a target for the rest of his days. It was just the memory of his mother that did him in, memories of siblings and a large pod that called themselves parts of his family. He'd wanted to have that again, he wanted to find a pod so warm and accepting, a new one that would love him too, but he didn't. The dark-eyed human didn't say anything, just held to his hand as he drifted. Lance wondered just what was going on, this wasn't punishment, and no move was made to force him out of the cove or harm him... What was happening? When Keith let him go he nearly bolted for the bottom, but halted as Keith lifted his palms for Lance to see. The gesture of benevolence, a show of trust, of good will.  
"You think that'll cheer him up?" Pidge peered over her friend's shoulder, standing a little further back to not crowd the shaky creature.  
"He was happy with it yesterday, not sure what else I can do to stop him from crying again," Keith murmured, watching the merman's eyes as they darted across his hands and arms. Watching as his large irises bounced around was an odd sight, the pupils dilating slightly before constricting again when the two made eye contact. Keith was surprised that the mermaid held his gaze so long, he seemed to avoid it at all costs before-  
"Oh, right," he bowed his head, recalling how this display had played out before. He had to avert his eyes to show trust or something like that. Almost immediately a set of hands were sliding into his own, eager as could be.   
"God, I hope he doesn't strangle me," Keith lifted the hands to rest them on his collarbones. He had no clue what the mermaid had said during this transaction yesterday, so he ad-libbed something that he hoped was along the same lines.  
"You're safe here, we're not going to hurt you, 'kay?" He let go and looked back at the creature, who gave a small smile in return. Once again Keith had a lapful of glowing mermaid, this time with arms tightly around his waist, the loud trilling and whistling echoing in the cave walls.  
"Keith has a boyfriend~" Pidge mocked.   
"I will kill you," Keith glared over his shoulder, arms held up away from the boy embracing him. Pidge knelt behind him and leaned toward the happy little sea creature, tapping a finger on his shoulder. Bright blue eyes connected with hers, then scanned her face.  
"Pidge," she pointed to herself, then went around saying her two friends names before pointing to the merman himself. He stared at the finger then back to Pidge.  
"Ahu-Lahness," the name was all breaths and hisses, definitely something never meant for human tongue.  
"Aw-hawnesh?" She asks. A funny look crossed the mermaid's features, but it seemed to register just how difficult his language would be for the humans.  
"Lah-ness," Lance omitted his pod title. He wondered how much he could manipulate his name for the land-dweller language. Trying to say it with his mouth instead of throat and chest was another odd sensation.  
"Law-nesh," the Pidge said confidently. He shook his head and pulled himself from Keith. She drew out 'ness' far too much and heavily emphasized 'ah' as 'aw.'  
"Lahness," he said more to himself, trying to see what was the most comfortable to say for both, but still recognizable as his name.   
"Lahns," he tried saying his nickname the way he thought a human would and checked her expression for any indication.  
"Lance?" the Keith asked from his side. The merman mulled it over, it didn't sound too bad in their language, it was soft enough, not all harsh syllables and blunt noises. It would do.  
"Lance," he pointed to himself, making sure to keep his smile from spreading too wide, hiding his teeth.  
"Lance, cool," Pidge said.   
"I think it's as good a time as any to start teaching him a little," she settled cross-legged on the stone floor and made sure she had Lance's attention.   
"Lance," she said, and he propped himself on the stone, at full attention.  
"Yes," she nodded her head and repeated it several times.  
"Yes?" Lance asked, absolutely confused. Pidge turned to their larger friend, knowing just how she could explain this.  
"Hunk, cookie?" She held out her hand.  
"Yes," Hunk smiled and handed her one.   
"Ah, yes!" Lance repeated, understanding finally dawning on him.  
"And then... No," Pidge shook her head side to side, now Keith came in to help, putting his hand out as well.  
"Pidge, cookie?"   
"No," she pulled it away from him and bit into it.  
"Ah, no!" Lance couldn't help how big he smiled now, he was so very excited, he must have been brighter than that blinding sky light by now.   
"Lance, cookie," he asked, turning to Hunk, pointing to himself. The other smiled despite the terrifyingly sharp teeth and handed one over.  
"Yes, Lance!" The whole group was ecstatic with the progress.   
Lance eyed the treat, it was soft in his hands and smelled... Not bad. New, and like nothing he'd ever smelled before, but it was not bad. Hesitantly, he took a bite, and froze. The flavor was so very new, sweet beyond sweet and practically melted in his mouth. He quickly gobbled it down and turned to the larger human. Hunk was about to offer another one when the merman practically tackled him over with a strong hug.  
"Oof! You're welcome," he gasped around the head of hair and pat him on the back.  
"Oh, maybe we should do manners and greetings next," Pidge added.

By the time the water started rising the group had taught their little secret the most basic of beginners English, for his situation anyway. Really anything that was in the little cave or marine-related, and small courtesies; hello, goodbye, yes, no, water, home, swim, and cave just to name a few. He didn't look very happy to see them gathering their things again, allowing himself to sink a bit.  
"Pidge swim home?" He asked as she dipped her legs into the water.  
"Yes, Pidge, Hunk, and Keith swim home," she nodded as her friends situated themselves to dive in as well. The joyous shimmering he previously had dulled down to an almost gray glow compared to his usual radiant blues, Pidge was fixated on this and made note to record it once she got back on dry land; she wanted to record what all of these bioluminescent patterns meant for his emotional state. Lance darted to the bottom of the cave and went through the exit before his acquaintances, who followed soon after. Again Keith was the last to climb onto the rock wall, and again the merman reached out to pause his attempt to leave.  
"Keith, swim home, swim back?"   
Keith was quiet a moment as he looked the boy over, he looked so sad, was he really the last of his kind like Hunk suggested? He must be so very lonely, he couldn't imagine not having Shiro, Adam, or his friends.  
"Yes. I'll come back," the merman lit up again and smiled before returning to the other side of the wall.  
"He looooooves you~" Pidge teased from the cave opening.  
"I swear to god I'm going to bury you right here," Keith spat back. But he couldn't be too upset, he was actually enjoying this whole situation, it was fun and kinda cool having such a big secret.  
Hunk was walking ahead of them towards the beach, watching the sun go down on the horizon.  
"Hey guys?"  
"Yeah, man?" Keith asked.  
"If Lance is real, do you think other fairytales are too? Like maybe somewhere on a farm in the middle of nowhere some kid is sheltering a unicorn, or in an animal reserve a scientist is documenting a Phoenix he thinks is just a rare tropical bird? Maybe tomorrow there will be a gryphon on the news or a harpy woman sweeping people off the streets." It was a jarring thought, especially coming from the level-headed Hunk.  
"Maybe, but I personally think mermaids could have been the link between man and marine life, a more aesthetically-pleasing take on the Missing Link if you will. Lance may have survived undiscovered this long because of how deep down he lives," Pidge concluded.  
"How do you know where he lives?" Keith asked.  
"I'm just theorizing, based on his characteristics. The way his eyes react to light means he's not used to it, and he lights up like an angler fish. His teeth and claws are designed for predators, but he's also venomous so he probably fights some big game. Some of the largest creatures ever recorded were found on deep-sea cams, colossal squid, horrendously huge sharks, and I'm certain the megalodon must still be hiding at the bottom of the sea somewhere too." Pidge rattled off, swinging her bag around to pull out the journal and pen again.  
"I think he stays in the cave because that last room goes deeper than the area around the beach. He'd have to swim out a mile or two in bright, open water to get anything that deep, and who knows how much further to find another little niche? Your cave is the perfect spot for him."  
"Okay, you keep your Missing Link and megalodon theories, I'll keep my unicorns and gryphons," Hunk said indignantly.   
"Deal." She agreed.  
The trio headed back to Keith's, set on research, theorizing, and setting a game plan for their new 'teach the mermaid' routine. Suffice to say, it would be an interesting summer.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading! This was the last I wrote of this on my old iPad (season 2 timeframe) so everything from here on out will be new, forgive me if my continuity is a little off!

**Author's Note:**

> Started this story around the end of season 2, the fiancé was Allura at that time so I had to real quick change it up, lol. Wrote in a new role for Allura coming in later chapters! Thanks for reading!


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